I love the way my next door neighbour is so interested in what I eat. It's not the "OH MY GAAAAAAAWD, WHAT DOOOO YOU EAT?" but genuine interest. She nearly always asks me what I am cooking for the week.

Cheap food! My fiance and I usually spend, at most, £20 a week on food. We buy in bulk once every few months...big bags of pasta, rice, etc, other than that, everything is so cheap! Since we don't do meat subs or anything anyway... we mostly make food from beans and veg etc. Now if we were buying cheese..that'd be much more expensive. If we were buying meat too, well, that'd be an aaawful lot more expensive! Tomorrows dinner costs 48p each...and it's a filling wintery soup!

When I'm travelling, especially where I don't speak the local language, I always seek out the local vegetarian/vegan restaurants, which are invariably outside of the beaten tourist path. I tend to find interesting things to do and see once I'm in those neighborhoods, and I usually end up seeing much more of a city or place than I would have otherwise. In recent memory, this has led me to some of the most fun experiences I had in Tokyo, Singapore, Montreal, Italy, Paris, and plenty of other places.

I took a batch of the VWAV pumpkin muffins (in mini muffin form) to a work meeting, and a.) my pumpkin-resistent coworker loved them, b.) another coworker said it was better than any of the baked goods our store (coffee shop) sells, and c.) someone else said, "Your veganism has earned my respect!"

The only other person who brought food to this work meeting brought an awesome tomato rice soup in a crock pot. Said she wanted to make sure there was something everyone could eat.

So I guess my pet awesomes are impressing people with vegan food, and people who impress us with vegan food.

I was last-minute invited to a pie party on Saturday night and whipped up one from VPITS. At the party I was randomly talking to someone who I noticed had been there for a while but not eaten any pie. She said, "Well, I'm vegan..." and that was the first time I've ever met another vegan randomly like that. That was the awesome part - then there was a not awesome part when she told me she didn't like chocolate! It was a chocolate pie. But she tried it anyway because she was excited to meet me too.

Made a big dinner for a bunch of omni friends this weekend. Everything turned out awesome and people raved. At the end of the meal one guy (who had commented a few times on how tasty things were) made some light joke about vegetarians and I said, "um, you do realize that everything you just ate was vegan, right?" The look on his face was PRICELESS, in an awesome "holy crepe I didn't realize vegan food could taste this good!" way.

_________________She eats a paleo diet, just like the whiskey-and-bacon-eating australopithecans before her. - annak

I thought this thread was about "vegan pet" awesomes and my pets are not vegan so I hadn't come in.

1. I cook so much more and more interesting food now! 2. Indian buffet!3. I have eaten so many new and delicious vegetables! 4. It turns out I was lactose intolerant all that time and now my digestion is fantastic!

Had an advertiser take me to lunch today (one of the very few perks of my job) and it came up that I was vegan. Well, when I have to modify my order for egg-free pasta, no meat, no cheese, it is pretty obvious.

She was quite the foodie, and her husband is a really good home chef. We had a great lunch talking about food. There was no tone of judgement, or 'oops sorry I ordered fish', or 'you need more protien' or any of the things that come up as a 'vegan pet peeve'. We just talked about FOOD and COOKING. All kinds. Meat, veg, etc.

Like, I am cool to talk about food. I don't mind discussing any kind of food. I hate it when people assume the worst of vegans, think it is always ethical. Sometimes it is just food you know?

I know this has been said a million times over but the POOPS. Sometimes I stop and think how grateful I am for them.

This! If I go at home (where I don't have to disinfect the seat or layer toilet paper on it; I'm just easily disgusted, I know it's hard to catch something from a toilet seat) it takes 1 minute, including wiping and washing hands. 1 minute. I have more time for important things in life. On the down-side, I never get to experience the joy of reading on the toilet...

Not having to wash two cutting boards! Or have to worry about getting salmonella all over the place. And I definitely eat better than all my omnivore friends. And not just in taste, but in variety. Before I went vegan I would eat those microwavable meals like 4 nights out of the week. If I was feeling adventurous I'd make something out of a box. Or put an animal on the grill.

_________________Half the lies I tell are not true."luckily us vegans dont go into cardiac arrest...but we do go into food comas" - Adam Crisis

I feel better. I smell better. My tummy doesn't hurt all the time. I don't spend long, anguished moments deciding whether or not to eat the nutritionally empty treats a coworker brought in; I just know I can't eat them and that's that. I don't spend even more anguished moments wondering what kind of tortured life my dinner led. If I don't feel like cooking I can often just select something to eat raw and it won't kill me. Dishes are, yes, much easier to wash. I no longer feel compelled to wander down every aisle in the grocery store (not having to fight my way through the crowd in the dairy aisle is reason enough to be vegan...).

And the people in my life have almost all been super supportive. My coworkers ask me, with genuine interest, about what I'm eating. My family is devoting conversation to making sure there will be plenty of yummy stuff for me to eat at Thanksgiving. My room mate and I are having a potluck next weekend and at least a few friends are planning to bring things that I can eat. It's very nice.

But the food-stuck-in-teeth thing? I kind of feel like I've always got kale between my teeth.

I'm probably the opposite to some people but I'm loving the decrease in pooping. Because of my lactose intolerance I was going up to 6 times a day. Now I go once maybe twice. It is fantastic. I can go places without having to worry about where the nearest toilet is and will there be toilet roll or stinking out a place.

I cook all the time now & am a lot more confident in my cooking.My tummy is mostly better, especially without dairy. More regular & less painful poops as well.I don't feel as guilty and conflicted about the food I eat (just the amount).Eating out is actually easier because now I just think about what is vegan rather than the calories, fat, etc.I've gained weight but I feel better about myself than I did before and am more confident in my choices.Most of my friends and family are pretty supportive and curious in a good way about it. I used to get flak from where I used to work about it but now that I don't work there it's almost all positive (not that I even mention it much).

Opening my friends' and my partner's minds to rad vegan food continues to be the most fun ever; I love the "whaaa? this is vegan?!" face. So priceless.I fell deep in love with preparing homecooked meals. Cooking rules so much.My energy levels are way higher, I feel more clear-headed and I find it waaay easier to cope with my lame health probs, which is beyond awesome.

something awesome happened over the weekend...went to a friends house to watch an MMA fight and see a new baby (yay! so cute). They come over often, and I usually make food. The dad is the cook of the family, and he said he wanted to make an animal free meal so I could eat.

This is a mexican family, and the idea of not having meat in meal was so odd to them, but man, those were some AWESOME potato tacos, cilantro rice, guac and beans! It was very sweet of them to do that. Especially since my food experiences with family and some friends has been less than steller. Well horrible to be honest.